Special Pals Week #5 (EDTE 255)
This week Melissa and I focused on getting our students to play a different game at recess than they normally are used to. Melissa’s student likes to play this intense imaginary, fantasy game and my students like to play on the swing or walk around. On Monday we got to recess right as it started, which was perfect to get a game started with all of them. Melissa’s student wanted to play his fantasy game, but we explained to him that his game is something that we don’t really understand and we would like to play another game. He was really offended that we didn’t want to play his game anymore. With a lot of convincing and promising, we were able to get him to play basketball with us. My special pal on the other hand, was excited to play basketball with us. He asked a lot of questions about the rules. He kept saying that he only likes to dribble because he’s a bad shooter. I told him that he was probably better at shooting than I was, and that gave him a little confidence. I was proud that Melissa and I got a 2 on 2 basketball game going! Afterwards, my special pal said, “that was fun!” On Wednesday our plan was to try to get them to play again, but as always in the teaching world, things don’t go as planned. Melissa’s pal had gotten in trouble and had to sit out for recess, and one of my pals had was still eating his lunch because he missed the food line. That left my other special pal. There is a student in his mainstream class that sits next to him and he is always really friendly to my pal. I told my pal to ask his groupmate to play basketball with us to even out the teams, but he wouldn’t do it. I could tell that he really wanted to play with him, but he was nervous to ask. He kept making up excuses not to ask him to play. I think that next week, I will ask the student ahead of time if he will play with my pal, so my pal can see that he would be willing to play with him and he has nothing to be afraid of. Hopefully, next Melissa and I can get a big basketball game going, and eventually step out and just facilitate.
